The Romney-Ryan campaign keeps adding to the impression that it is run by Elmer Fudd who has mistaken his opponents for the rascally rabbits. Elmer would like for everyone to be Very Quiet, but periodic outbursts of honesty keep impeding his adventures. Example Number Whatever: Hedger funder John Taylor on CNBC:

“Hedge funder John Taylor is on CNBC and expressing major disappointment in Romney for selecting Paul Ryan for being his running mate. Why? Because he’s too open about wanting to cut Medicare, and that will cost the election.

Taylor thinks Romney would have been better for the economy, but that now he blew it.

Taylor even thinks that the budget cutting needs to be done, but that it’s a mistake to be so open about it.

“I agree that we have to do this stuff… but you don’t want to do it in public,” he said.” [Business Insider] (emphasis added)

No, it would definitely be counter-productive to tell the American voting public you want to end the Medicare program as we know it, end assistance for nursing home residents under Medicaid, or — cut Pell Grants for students from middle class families, gut clean air and clean water regulations, end urban redevelopment programs under HUD, or cut funding for WIC programs for women and infants….

Be Quiet, Be Very Very Quiet! The Republican plan gives every appearance of being entirely composed of vague generalities, unspecified numbers, soaring rhetoric, carefully crafted talking points, and lots of Flags and references to freedom. The first step is to get elected, the second is to (do what?)

End Medicare as we know it for future generations, and cut every social safety net program to shreds so that there aren’t any economic stabilizers left the next time unshackled Wall Street enthusiasm creates the next crash.

“The question then is how should we in the media report on Ryan’s plan? Do we use the revenue numbers he tells us to assume, despite the fact that he offers no path for reaching those numbers, and despite the fact that he and his party have a long history of choosing tax cuts over deficit reduction? Or do we use the policy changes on the page, in which case Ryan’s plan is wildly fiscally irresponsible? […]

At the very least, people should know that when they hear about the Ryan plan’s deficit reduction, those numbers are assuming that Ryan, who has thus far refused to name even one tax break that he would get rid of, has either eliminated almost every expenditure in the tax code, including the capital gains tax break and the home mortgage interest deduction, or he’s sacrificed his tax cuts.” [WaPo]

And, there we have the formula: Don’t specify what tax breaks would be eliminated! Get the votes and then happily revert to the Voodoo Economics of the Bush Administration which got us into the current mess in the first place.

Be Very Quiet! The Romney-Ryan Ticket promises to dismantle financial regulation. OK, the President certainly isn’t talking about dismantling financial regulation or de-regulating the Wall Street Wizards, and Governor Romney definitely doesn’t want to say much beyond making his new regulations “modern” and “streamlined.” Whatever on Earth that might mean. We’re all supposed to be very very quiet and accept that the Romney-Ryan ticket promises “freedom,” “prosperity,” “employment,” and all those other buzz words associated with happy feelings.

We are not supposed to ask tricky questions like:

(1) Would former Governor Romney eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which protects customers from invidious practices by unethical lender, mortgage scam artists, and seeks to prevent lenders from practicing predatory lending practices on members of our Armed Forces?

(2) Would former Governor Romney repeal the provisions of the Dodd Frank Act which require large banks to create a plan for their orderly liquidation in case of bankruptcy?

(3) Would former Governor Romney repeal the provisions of the Dodd Frank Act which grant the Commodity Futures Trading Commission authority to regulate and oversee the derivatives markets?

If we’re all very very very quiet, then the Romney-Ryan ticket can be elected and then they can “do all that stuff…without having to DO it in PUBLIC.”